MAPAL offers a broad portfolio of ISO tools for milling operations. A new series of cutting materials has been developed especially for the milling of the whole bandwidth of cast iron grades – GJL, GJV and GJS. Preliminary results show that the new cutting materials allow not only a significant increase in tool life and hence greater cost-effectiveness, but also higher cutting speeds and therefore maximum productivity.

In GJL250, for example, the tool lives have been doubled compared with the cutting materials used to date. The cutting material series is based on newly developed carbide substrates. The structures of the carbides have been modelled in such a way that they provide an optimal relationship between ductility and wear resistance. The carbide grades used are suitable for the ISO field of application K10 to K45. The ductility of the carbides is thereby increased from K10 to K45 by increasing the cobalt content and the particle size of the tungsten carbide.

The cutting material series includes three PVD-coated carbides and two CVD-coated grades. The PVD coating here consists of an optimised TiAlCrN with very fine structuring of the layers to create an optimal relationship between ductility and hardness/wear resistance. The CVD coating is based on an MT-TiCN with alpha-Al2O3 top coat. This layer combination offers not only high wear resistance, but also good thermal stability. A special post-treatment has been developed for both the PVD coating and the CVD coating that ensures an extremely smooth surface and hence an optimal chip flow. This minimises tribochemical wear. With the CVD coating, the post-treatment additionally sets a
selective intrinsic stress in the coating, stabilising the cutting edge or increasing the ductility of the cutting material.
MAPAL can thus offer the optimum cutting material for the milling of cast iron grades for everything from dry to wet machining and for a range of applications and machining conditions.